A Hassle-Free Move to Your New iPod

Chances are high that if you've been reading the iPod news there'll be a new iPod in your future. Whether it's the beefy Video iPod or the barely there iPod Shuffle, you're going to have to deal with a new iPod in the family.

Here are a couple of likely scenarios and how to best manage them:

You keep one iPod as a lightweight for the gym and one as a heavyweight for those times when you need more media to get you through the night.

Since I already own a big honking iPod, I'm going for the lightweight Shuffle this time, great for a subway ride. This means that I'll only move certain playlists from iTunes to the new iPod. I will not do a full synch, but a manual one, following the instructions available at The Crutchfield Advisor.

You're more altruistic and pass the old iPod down to one of the kids, keeping the new one for yourself.

For families with multiple iPods, one easy way to manage is to store your music on one PC and create playlists that you move to the respective iPods. For complete instructions, go to The Crutchfield Advisor and see the section under using multiple iPods with one computer.

You want to move your iPod's music to your PC.

While iPods and iTunes are incredibly adroit when it comes to moving music from the iTunes store to the PC to your iPod, things are much tougher the other way 'round. Yet there are lots of scenarios when this is precisely what you want to do. Perhaps you're reformatting your old iPod to work with a Mac and not a PC. Perhaps a hard disk went bad on your PC. Or you want to keep a music library at home and at work. iLounge has an incredibly detailed step by step for moving music from your iPod to your computer.

Moving music to the Shuffle.

If your plans involve a new iPod Shuffle, you'll be moving music a little differently—without the aid of a full display screen. The best step by step instructions for this maneuver come from Peachpit Press.

If you run into trouble, remember the iPod 5R creed—reset, retry, restart, reinstall, and restore—to bail you out.